Daily Articles

Feeling Helpless Against the IRS?

by Laurence M. Vance September 1, 2017

Although I enjoy looking at billboards on road trips because it breaks the monotony, I don’t pay too much attention to them when I am driving around town. However, one recently caught my eye because it had to do with something I frequently write about: taxes. The billboard said, “Feeling Helpless Against the IRS?” Since I don’t like handing my ...

The Supreme Court’s Destruction of Liberty of Contract

by David S. D'Amato September 1, 2017

Found in Article I, Section 10, of the Constitution, the Contract Clause is a failed attempt to prevent the government from taking actions that would compromise the integrity of contractual obligations — failed, in large part, because of the 1934 Supreme Court case Home Building & Loan Association v. Blaisdell. Blaisdell is arguably the centerpiece of the Supreme Court’s ...

The Quirin Decision of 1942 Revisited

by Joseph R. Stromberg September 1, 2017

In Ex Parte Quirin (1942) the U.S. Supreme Court justified the trial by military commission of eight German soldiers “captured” on American soil. Edward S. Corwin called the case “a ceremonious detour to a predetermined goal” (Total War and the Constitution, 1947). Louis Fisher notes the “common perception … that Quirin was a contrived decision without anchoring ...

Freedom of Contract: A Bedrock of Freedom

by George Leef September 1, 2017

Freedom of contract used to be understood as a cornerstone of civilization and a crucial element in economic progress. The Constitution’s Framers included in Article 1, Section 10, a clause stating that Congress was forbidden to enact any law impairing the obligation of contracts. And in the Civil Rights Act of 1866, Congress included the freedom to enter into ...

Battlefield America Is the New Normal

by John W. Whitehead August 30, 2017

“If we’re training cops as soldiers, giving them equipment like soldiers, dressing them up as soldiers, when are they going to pick up the mentality of soldiers? If you look at the police department, their creed is to protect and to serve. A soldier’s mission is to engage his enemy in close combat and kill him. ...

“Liberal Socialism” Another False Utopia

by Richard M. Ebeling August 28, 2017

Very often bad and failed ideas do not die, they simply reappear during periods of supposed social and political crisis in slightly different intellectual garb, and offer “solutions” that would merely help to bring about some of the very types of crises for which they once again claim to have the answers. Socialism in its various “progressive” mutations represents ...

Freedom for the Speech We Hate

by John W. Whitehead August 24, 2017

“If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the principle of free thought — not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.”— Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes There was a time in this country, back when ...

The Libertarian Angle: Racism and Civil War Statues

by Future of Freedom Foundation August 23, 2017

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and Richard Ebeling discuss the recent controversy over civil war statues and the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. Go to the podcast.

Cows and Cannabis

by Laurence M. Vance August 22, 2017

Lynching is on the rise. No, it is not occurring in the Deep South. No, it is not being perpetrated by white men. And no, it is not being done because of the color of someone’s skin. Lynching is occurring in India. It is being carried out by Hindus. And it is being done because of someone’s diet. India is ...

Austrian Monetary Theory vs. Federal Reserve Inflation Targeting

by Richard M. Ebeling August 21, 2017

One of the leading policy guideposts for central banks and many monetary policy proponents nowadays is the idea of “inflation targeting.” Several major central banks around the world, including the Federal Reserve in the United States, have set a goal of two percent price inflation. The problem is, what central bankers are targeting is a phantom that does not ...

The Libertarian Angle: The North Korea Crisis

by Future of Freedom Foundation August 15, 2017

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and Richard Ebeling discussing rising tensions with North Korea. Go to the podcast.

Ten Years On: Recession, Recovery and the Regulatory State

by Richard M. Ebeling August 14, 2017

What we now know to have been one of the worst economic and financial crises of the post-World War II period began about ten years ago in 2007. Various retrospective commentaries have focused on the severity of the economic downturn, its impact on different markets and segments of the population, and the lessons from it. An especially important lesson ...